Bioshock 2’s multiplayer is surprisingly great, and while I’m currently away from my Xbox 360, the release last week of the new Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack had my interest piqued: it promised a maximum rank increase up to level fifty, with rank rewards including a third set of weapon upgrades, as well as twenty new trials, two new playable characters and give new masks.

Unfortunately, it looks like this is one DLC pack I’ll be passing on. Even though the Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack was somewhat insubstantial as far as DLC is concerned, its filesize has triggered some fan alarm: it weighs in at only 108KB. That’s just not enough space to put in a couple of new character models… implying heavily that it’s just a downloadable key unlocking content already on the disc.

This is exactly the sort of cynical DLC strategy that gets consumers in an uproar. Unfortunately, 2K’s response is lackluster:

I noticed there was a bit of confusion about our Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack file size, and I wanted to clear things up for you. The way our engine and game structure works is that people need to have the exact same content for people to play together. One of the challenges with post launch content for MP is that it can split the player base, and we want to avoid that whenever possible. For this content, creating the DLC package the way we did allowed for us to not split the player base – so whether you purchase the new content or not, you can still play with your friends.

I know some of you have strong beliefs about DLC, and I’m not here to sway your opinion or convince you to buy our stuff – if you like what we’re offering, I hope you get it and enjoy it. If it’s not your speed, enjoy BioShock 2 as we released it.

If people all need the same content to play together, does that means that all of the DLC 2K intends on selling is already locked on the Bioshock 2 disc? If that’s true, that could result in quite the scandal: people rightfully expect to be able to play all of the game they bought, and pay for newly generated content later.